The Transportation System Preservation Technical Services Program (TSP2) is sponsored by AASHTO. The program is contracted to the National Center for Pavement Preservation (NCPP) at Michigan State University. The NCPP is hosting HiMA thin lift paving field studies with Kraton and interested U.S. state DOTs. The study started in 2010, working with ten northeast U.S. states and Professor Walaa Mogawer, director of the Highway Sustainability Research Center at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; to develop a HiMA thin lift asphalt specification. To learn more see the related videos and job stories showcasing the progress of this study.

The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth is conducting a study of Kraton high-polymer content thin lift mixtures containing up to 40 percent RAP. The study plans initially to test materials from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and subsequently, several other states.

The Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT)
recently had a section of
Interstate 5 paved with
advanced hot mix asphalt as part of
a nationwide demonstration program
involving thin pavement overlay incorporating
highly polymer-modified
asphalt binder (HiMA).
Knife River Materials manufactured
and installed the new HiMA
mix for ODOT’s demonstration on
a two-mile segment of northbound
lanes of I-5 near Medford, the seat
of Jackson County located in southern
Oregon near the California border.

Atechnology transfer program administered by the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is helping state departments of transportation expedite review of potentially promising new pavement and bridge technologies prior to acceptance or rejection as specifications.
On the good side, a rigorous acceptance process means that the chance of spending scarce tax dollars on a questionable technique or material is greatly reduced. On the bad side, each DOT employs a rigorous acceptance process for each technology or product, and this can stifle use of innovative materials.

The performance of thin-lift
hot asphalt overlay recently
placed on U.S. Route 202 in
Rochester, NH as one of a series of
field demonstrations is being closely
monitored by the New Hampshire
Department of Transportation (NHDOT)
as it looks for promising products
designed to extend pavement service life.
Continental Paving Inc. of Londonderry,
NH, supplied the hot mix asphalt and
installed the one-inch asphalt overlay
on a 2.4-mile section of highway under
a demonstration provision included
in the contractor’s $1.72-million
contract for paving various roads in
NHDOT’s Maintenance District 6. The thin-lift asphalt overlay incorporated
highly polymer-modified liquid asphalt
binder (HiMA) and was integral to
a project initiated by the Northeast
Pavement Preservation Partnership
(NEPPP), a regional DOT group
dedicated to advancing pavement
preservation practices through
education, research and outreach.

Approximately one month after Hurricane
Irene had dumped up to 12
inches of rain in parts of Vermont
on August 28, 2011, causing the
state’s worst flooding in 80 years, state and
municipal construction crews assisted by the
Vermont National Guard had rebuilt and reopened
many of the sections of some 300 roads
that had been closed due to storm damage.

The Minnesota Department of
Transportation (MnDOT) has
taken aim at cracked pavements
with a new highly modified asphalt
mix.
MnDOT sanctioned the installation of
hot mix asphalt modified with a high concentration
of a new type of polymer on
a section of Trunk Highway 100 west
of Minneapolis, to see if the advanced
product could reduce a certain type of
pavement cracking.
“The 12.5 millimeter Superpave mix we’ve been using for our mill-and-fill operations has done a
good job of reducing thermal cracking , but we need a way to reduce reflection cracks,” said Jerry Geib,
MnDOT research operations engineer.
As a member of the Federal Highway Administration’s Pavement Preservation Expert Task Group
and Midwestern Pavement Preservation Partnership (MPPP), Geib learned about a series of planned
field demonstrations of thin-lift asphalt overlay incorporating highly polymer-modified liquid asphalt
binder (HiMA).

The performance of thin-lift hot asphalt
overlay recently placed on U.S. Route
202 in Rochester, as one of a series of
field demonstrations, is being closely
monitored by the New Hampshire Department of
Transportation (NHDOT) as it looks for promising
products designed to extend pavement service
life.Continental Paving Inc. of Londonderry, N.H.,
supplied the hot mix asphalt and installed the oneinch asphalt overlay on a 2.4-mile section of highway
under a demonstration provision included in
the contractor’s $1.72-million contract for paving
various roads in NHDOT’s Maintenance District
6. The thin-lift asphalt overlay incorporated highly
polymer-modified liquid asphalt binder (HiMA)
and was integral to a project initiated by the Northeast
Pavement Preservation Partnership (NEPPP), a
regional DOT group dedicated to advancing pavement
preservation practices through education, research
and outreach.

As road agencies strapped for cash
look for ways to optimize their
limited dollars, many are taking a
much closer look at the practice of
pavement preservation. And standing there to help is a host of regional partnerships
across the United States and Canada that bring
together representatives of state and local agencies, contractors,
suppliers, academic institutions, consultants and
the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to promote
pavement preservation while advancing research.
Pavement preservation techniques are being promoted
by the FHWA and the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) as cost-effective
and environmentally-sustainable strategies designed to extend
the life of existing pavements before they deteriorate
substantially.
These techniques include nonstructural preventive maintenance
surface treatments such as crack sealing, chip sealing,
micro surfacing and thin-lift hot-mix asphalt paving.